On 4th February, NATS implemented the first phase of its LAMP (London Airspace Management Programme).
Following the introduction of the LAMP procedures, NATS have had a number of issues which would appear to be due to a lack of briefing and misunderstanding of procedures. Were it not for the intervention of the ATC these issues could have lead to unsafe situations.
Point Merge at London City has been implemented in a slightly different way from other Point Merge systems in Europe.
RocketRoute would like to remind customers who fly in and out of London City of the following:
- JACKO and GODLU are holds. As per the WARNINGs on the plates, aircraft *should not proceed* past JACKO / GODLU without an instruction from ATC to either follow one of the RNAV1 transitions, or until they have been issued with a radar heading.
- If aircraft have been issued with an RNAV1 transition they should follow the complete transition. Aircraft should fly onto the ARC and fly the full ARC before they turn to the merge point unless they receive a clearance from ATC to turn to the merge point. There is no second, shorter transition, such as found in Paris or Dublin for example.
- Crews have requested confirmation on the RT; specifically, should they descend with the Radio Fail descent profiles on the transition charts, or do they need ATC instructions to descend? Please confirm to your crews they should not descend without an instruction from ATC. Similarly, they are not cleared to fly an ILS approach without an ATC instruction to do so.
- On one occasion an aircraft was issued with a climb instruction on the EKNIV SID to be level at FL70 by SODVU. The aircraft did not make FL70 by SODVU and did not report this to ATC. Had ATC not intervened, this would have led to a loss of separation with aircraft on the transition. If aircraft cannot make a level restriction issued by a controller they must report it to ATC.
- Please ensure your flight plans are completed correctly in respect of RNAV status, as this impacts on which departure SIDs are available from London City. When RNAV 1 equipped, departures from London City via LYD/DVR must utilise the EKNIV SID rather than the conventional RNAV 5 SID.
- Some providers have reported data coding problems. Please check crew reports to ensure all databases are performing as expected.
NATS management says : With such a large scale change we expected to face some early stage problems, we are pleased to say that, over all, the procedures are working well and airline feedback has been positive.